Marnie Baranuik is back, and this time, the Great White Shark of psychic investigations has “people skills” and a new assistant who seems to harbor an unhealthy curiosity about Harry, her revenant companion. Together, they’ve got a whole lot of questions that need answering. Is an ancient vampire hunting in Denver? Who is stalking Lord Dreppenstedt? How do you cure a slipper-humping bat, ditch an ogre, or give a demon king the slip? And what the hell was she thinking, swearing off cookies?

Teaming up with her sexual nemesis, Special Agent Mark Batten, and their long-suffering supervisor, Gary Chapel, Marnie discovers that vampire hunters aren’t easy to rescue, secrets don’t stay buried, and zombies sure are a pain in the ass to kill. (Summary and book cover courtesy of goodreads.com)

Review:

For those of you who don’t know me personally, I do not like scary movies, books or haunted houses. I just don’t do well with suspense or surprise situations. It’s to an unreasonable degree that I am startled when people walk up behind me at work resulting in unprofessional squawks at times. Yet despite these books being heavy on the horror, AJ Aalto has me gleefully looking forward to what’s next. She manages to take genuinely horrifying circumstances, adds cynicism, wit, sexual innuendos and somehow it results in laughing to tears. Marnie is such a fantastic character; she is definitely someone I wish had my back in real life. I also wouldn’t mind having Harry as a roommate. These books are genuinely fun to read and infused with such hilarity I imagine Aalto had a blast writing them.

In this continuation of Marnie’s woes, three furries have gone missing. This mystery results in the reasonable situation of Marnie dressed in a squirrel suit trying to shy away from an over-eager “unicorn”. Throw in a few zombies and revenants and you have one heck of a knotty situation for Marnie to untangle. If that doesn’t catch your attention, then I don’t know what will!